As modern aviation advances, the demand for ever-increasing flight envelopes and pilot performance grows. To help meet this demand on aircraft and on the pilots, modern aircraft include impressive arrays of displays, instruments, and sensors designed to provide the pilot with menus, data, and graphical options intended to enhance pilot performance and overall safety of aircraft and passengers.
A typical airplane includes a guidance panel, a flight management system (FMS), and a multi-function control display unit (MCDU). The guidance panel (sometimes called a mode control panel) is typically the primary method of controlling the autopilot of the airplane, and is typically located at the top center of the instrument panel. The FMS is a computer system that automates a wide variety of in-flight tasks to reduce the workload on the flight crew of the airplane. One task of the FMS is in-flight management of the flight plan and autopilot control of aircraft in accordance with the flight plan. The MCDU is an input/output device for the flight crew to communicate with the FMS. In order to enter a single flight clearance change in these typical systems, such as a vector, a pilot must refer to the guidance panel and multiple pages in the MCDU. Although current configurations of the FMS, guidance panel, and MCDU systems are suitable for their intended purpose, the present system is difficult to learn and is error-prone, even for experienced crews.
As such, it is desirable to provide avionics systems, controllers, and methods that provide efficient presentation and input relating to flight clearance and flight progress. In addition, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.